Attention, Jeff Zucker: NBC is having its best fall in 10 years

Jeff Zucker oversaw NBC programming for more than a decade before his exit in 2010.

By Scott Collins

Oct. 8, 2013 5:08 PM PT

The TV season is still young, but NBC is having its best fall start in a decade, leading to speculation it might finally have shaken off the curse of Jeff Zucker.

Thanks to the singing contest “The Voice” as well as Sunday night NFL games, the network has taken the first two weeks in the crucial category of adults ages 18 to 49, according to Nielsen.

FALL TV 2013: Watch the trailers

It has the biggest Week 2 lead of any network in 11 years and its best rank in total viewers in a decade. That goes back to the tenure of Zucker, the TV czar often blamed for failing to stop a ratings slide at NBC that continued through his exit in 2010. Zucker now runs CNN Worldwide. NBC’s entertainment lineup is now overseen by Bob Greenblatt, who recently extended his deal at the network.

For the week that ended Sunday, NBC easily won Monday and Tuesday nights due to “The Voice.” And Sunday’s game between Houston and San Francisco proved a powerful draw, with 17.7 million tuning in.

FULL COVERAGE: Fall TV preview 2013

The rest of the schedule wasn’t quite so cheery for NBC, though. The network finished dead last on Wednesday and Thursday. That included the Wednesday premiere of the crime-drama retread “Ironside,” which posted the worst numbers ever for an NBC fall drama rollout.

CBS had the week’s Top 3 most-watched shows, with “NCIS,” “The Big Bang Theory” and “60 Minutes.” As a result, the network won as usual among total viewers.

Boffo ratings for the Washington drama “Scandal” helped keep ABC in the game. Fox, meanwhile, is suffering from lackluster ratings for its fading singing contest “The X Factor” and was mired in fourth place.

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